As of about 4:00 on Friday afternoon, I had the best weekend in front of me. Nichole and I were going down to the TD Bank Garden to watch my beloved Celtics take on the Atlanta Hawks. Saturday was going to be a day of working from the home office and watching college football in my underwear, with a late, home cooked dinner for Nichole and I with some wine and a movie that evening. Sunday was going to be a day of home cooking. We had all the ingredients to make a few different kinds of homemade donuts, as well as the fixings for a BBQ chicken pizza, with our favorite football crew, the Patriots, taking on their arch rival, the Indianapolis Colts, that evening. What could be better, right?! Nothing! However...
Drove to Boston right after work on Friday, showing up at the Garden just in time for them to announce the Celtics. Now, if you haven't been to a game before, or even in a few years, you HAVE to get there for the beginning of the game. The call of the starting lineups is one of my favorite sports moments. Seeing the highlights on the jumbotron, and hearing Garnett and Pierce scream is unmatched. I get goosebumps every single time. The Celtics started out the game slow, but worked their way back into the lead at halftime. The second half was brutal. The Celtics couldn't toss the ball into the Atlantic Ocean, Atlanta was making everything, and the ticky tack fouls started to add up. Celtics end up losing by 9, getting our awesome weekend off to a downer of a start. Not to worry, still so much fun ahead of us!
Saturday morning saw me getting up fairly early to get some chores done before Nichole headed down to Scarborough for her Mary Kay open house. I got all the ingredients needed for my home cooking, picked up some necessities and made my way back home to pack up Nichole. Now, I had intended to do some work for a couple of my clients next, but they never got me the items I needed, so I was unable to get any of that done. Now I decided to attack the carpet on our stairs that smells like cat piss. Thought I would be able to quickly pull of the rug and get rid of the smell. Any of you ever tear out a rug? On stairs? What a bitch that was, with all the staples and tiny nails poking into my hands. Plus, the carpet wasn't one big long piece, it was a small section for each step. Oh, and the pissy section was at the very top. This took me about four hours to complete, and I'm certain that when I determine which cat it is, they are hitting the road.
In the meantime, the rain starts. I recently capped the chimney in an effort to reduce the amount of water our basement takes on. Every time it rains a decent amount our basement gets wet. I was hoping the chimney cap would be the solution. I was wrong. I went downstairs at around 6 PM to check on things and had to hop in the kayak at the bottom of the stairs just to make it around the corner. We had enough water, already, to fill a small pool. To make matters worse, it rained that hard for much longer, and our basement got more wet than it ever has before. I would spend the next two hours moving things, laying down towels to block the water and vacuuming water by the gallon. So far, I have removed about 100 gallons of water, and I, easily, have over 100 left. Needless to say, I am feeling a little defeated. Oh, and the Celtics lost again.
Sunday morning I woke up at 11:00 AM. Holy crap, haven't slept that late in years. Feeling rested, I head back to the basement to vacuum some more. After doing this for longing than I ever care to again, I head upstairs to start making some donuts. Nichole and I spend the better part of the afternoon trying some different recipes and have a great time deep frying dough and adding fillings and layers of sugar. We made some donut holes, an apple jelly filled one, and a peanut butter frosting and grape jelly filled one. They came out really good! We may start making them more often, so hopefully you guys like donuts!
Later in the day, I cook up some chicken and bacon, and lay out the wheat crust on the pizza pan. I put down a thin layer of cheese, cover the crust in a spicy barbecue sauce, add another layer of cheese and top with the cooked chicken, bacon and some chopped onions. I add red pepper flakes and bake it to absolute perfection! Just writing about it makes me wish I had some right now. It came out so good! We hit the couch for pizza, beer and the Patriots. Two out of the three weren't bad, and I'll let you guess which one didn't turn out good (I'm not ready to talk about the game yet).
Weekend wasn't at all what I had hoped for, but we survived it, so I guess I can't complain too much. Next weekend will be filled with digging and sealing before the ground freezes, I don't want to ever have to vacuum our basement again. If anyone wants to donate to the "Fix Chateau Marcole" fund, feel free to make the checks out to either Nichole or I, or if you want to help dig a big hole with me this weekend, I'll have homemade donuts and coffee ready for 11:00 AM on Saturday. I'm just saying...
About Me
- Mark
- I've always wondered if people actually read this stuff. I never do when I'm on other pages. Well, in case, for some strange reason, you find it necessary, I'll give you a little knowledge. I was born in The County. For those of you who don't konw better, that would be Aroostook County. For those of you who do, your jokes won't work on me, they are lame. I'm the son of an investment banker that squandered his every penny on tuna fish sandwiches in the late 80's, and my mother was the lead singer for the Bangles. Neither of those is true, but again, I'm convinced nobody is reading this anyways. I met my wife at a carnival, and we were married by the bearded lady in front of the entire clown brigade. I have a daughter who is training for the 2012 Olympics where she will compete in the Triple Jump and Javelin. We live in a nice little shanty in the woods and are hoping to one day have running water. Any questions?
